Research findings and discussion

Comparing to students’ result in post test 1 and post test2, the result above showed that there were improvements on students’ reading competence. The highest improvement on the average score was in determining the purpose of the text and in identifying the reference. The average score for each was 93.3. Meanwhile, the highest improvement from post test 1 to post test 2 was in finding the topic & main idea and completing sentence. The number of improvements was 13.4 for each. It was and interesting result because students previously got difficulty in completing sentence. Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation of Styles and Strategies Based Instruction gave positive effects in improving students’ reading competence.

Reviewing the improvement above, researcher noted that previously, the average score in the pre test of the whole materials was 51.68 then this result increased in the first post test which reached the average score 63.35, and continuing in progress in cycle 2 where the average score increased in the number of 74.70. This result had actually passed the minimum standard of 70 but researcher still found that several students had not fulfilled the minimum standard yet. There were 2 students who got the reading score 65 for each. Then, researcher evaluated that there were several reading materials which were in low average score, because they were still below the score of 70. These materials were detailed information, transition paragraph, and vocabulary. According to the result of post test in cycle 2, there was students’ progress and improvement in their reading scores.

Table 4.9

Students’ improvement on reading score at cycle 2

No	STUDENTS’ NAME	PRE TEST	POST TEST 1	POST TEST 2
1	AS 1	50	60	70
2	AS 2	60	70	75
3	AS 3	45	50	70
4	AS 4	40	55	70
5	AS 5	60	75	85
6	AS 6	55	60	75
7	AS 7	50	60	70
8	AS 8	45	55	65
9	AS 9	60	65	75
10	AS 10	40	60	75
11	AS 11	50	60	70
12	AS 12	45	65	70
13	AS 13	40	60	65
14	AS 14	40	60	70
15	AS 15	40	65	75

The data above described the comparative result before and after Classroom Action Research had been implemented. Before the action, there were 5 students got 40, 3 students got 45, 3 students got 50, 1 student got 55, and 3 students got 60. These results were far from the minimum standard required. However, students’ scores at cycle 2 showed improvement if it was compared to cycle 1. The number of students got 50 was only 1 student, got 55 was 2 students, and others were above 60. Surprisingly, there were 2 students who passed the minimum standard required. These results continuously improved in the the second post test, almost students at Alumni Class passed the minimum standard required and only 2 students who had not passed the standard minimum yet. The significant improvement on students’ reading competence showed that the implementation of Styles and Strategies Based Instruction gave positive effects on students’ reading competence.

2. 
   The improvement on students’ psychology
   

The applying of cycle 2 also showed improvements in students’ psychology and classroom reading performance. It was noted that students became more enthusiatic, motivated, and eager in studying reading, that was researcher saw in classroom meetings. Students asked researcher to teach them reading when researcher had schedule at their class. It was really unpredictable because students previously requested to study grammar than reading. This condition became in turn 180 degree, students preferred starting class by studying reading to grammar and they did not mind to get reading materials only. Their enthusiasm was recorded when researcher opened Alumni Class by asking, “Mau belajar apa dek hari ini? Reading ato grammar.? L-9 answered, “Reading aja.” Then researcher replied “Yakin, yang lain gimana?” L-2, L-3, L-4, and L-6 said altogether “Iya bu reading aja” continued by L-12 “iya bu ajarin cara cepetnya.” (January 21th, 2011 at 08.00 A.M)

The psychological progress also happened to several students who were categorized as passive and silent students during teaching learning process. They were students with the data source L-1, L-4, and L-5. After several approaches, attention, and motivation; they finally asked researcher to give them additional meetings. They regulerly came to researcher’s office in Ganesha Operation Jalan Majapahit 12A and Lamper Tengah Ruko B3 to study and discuss English reading with the researcher. This kind of activity did once a week, students came in groups by making an appoinment first with the researcher to adjust the schedule.

According to the statements above, it can be drawn that students had high motivation to study reading. It was indicated by their frequence in asking additional meeting to researcher outside the classroom in order to deepen their understanding in reading. Moreover, students did not mind to come to another outlet to see the researcher and study reading together.

3. 
   The improvement on teacher-students relationship
   

Another progress related to emotional relationship between researcher and students. It happened because of the frequent interaction between researcher and students both in the classroom teaching learning process and outside the class. This condition created comfortable situation between researcher and students in classroom reading performance. On the other hand, researcher can deeply understand students’ character and their ability in reading. This positive thing impacted to researcher’ evaluation related to students’ progress in reading both quantitavely and qualitatively.

4. 
   Reflecting
   

Reflection was aimed at analyzing and evaluating the Classroom Action Research.

1. 
   The Strengths
   

According to the reflection of cycle 2, there were strong points related to the research. There were described as follows:

a) Reading strategies enabled the students to learn independently. After Classroom Action Research had been done, students’ psychology related to reading shifted. It can be seen from several meetings where students enthusiastically in getting involved at classroom reading performance. Students were motivated in discussing reading, followed actively in certain reading instructions, and applied the strategies in the independent task. They also asked researcher to evaluate their reading result and raised their hands to ask difficult items or strategies.

2. 
   Students realized that reading is important subject. At cycle 2, researcher did not need to explain how important reading subject was and did not need to persuade students to discuss reading materials. Because students conciously asked researcher to teach them reading since the beginning of the meeting.
   
3. 
   Close relationship between researcher and students as the impact of additional meetings created classroom atmosphere which are warm and comfortable. Students who were considered as passive in the first cycle, had become more active. Some students also acknowledged that their mastery in reading increased much better than before. They said that they liked to study reading. Their eagerness and willingness appeared because they had certain strategies in solving English reading quickly and accurately.
   

1. 
   The Weaknesses
   
   1. 
      In spite of the facts that there were many benefits from Styles and Strategies Based Instruction, researcher still found that there were several students who were not able to guess the meaning from context easily and quickly because most of them tended to translate words in the text one by one so that the content was not understood. It was hard for them to compete with their clever friends in answering reading items quickly. This condition made them preferred keeping silent to discussing reading items, so classroom activity was still dominated by clever students.
      
   2. 
      There were several reading materials which were in low average score, because they were still below the score of 70. These materials were detailed information, transition paragraph, and vocabulary.
      

5. 
   Recommendation
   

Based on the weaknesses recorded in cycle 2, so it was recommended to do the following suggestions in the following cycle. (1) reseacher set a longer time for practicing reading items for low students to get enough time in understanding the questions, thinking the strategies used, and finding clues that allow to the identification of the correct answer. (2) researcher kept implementing drilling technique in elaborating students ability in vocabulary. (3) researcher kept accompanying and supporting passive and low students not to give up easily by giving some advice, suggestions, and motivation.

3. 
   Cycle 3
   

a. Planning

The plan of the action in the third cycle was based on the identified problems on the second cycle (see page 178-179). In order to get maximum results in the research, the researcher had planned some activities before applying the research. (1) sharing and discussing previous classroom situations with collaborator, Mrs. Mala. It was done to make any correction and revision about teaching learning process using Styles and Strategies Based Instruction in the third cycle. At this discussion, researcher and collaborator discussed kind of strategies applied in solving students’ problems related to State University Entrance Test’s material. (2) preparing a lesson plan containing teaching learning processes. (3) giving reading post test to measure students ability after reading strategies applied. It was done to assess the effectiveness of Classroom Action Research and measure students’ progress. (4) interview. It was the last step used to dig more about students' feeling, thinking, and opinion about reading strategies.

b. Acting

1. 
   The First Meeting
   

The first meeting was conducted on Monday, March 7th 2011. The materials for the first meeting were (1) finding the topic and main idea, (2) determining the purpose of the text, and (3) identifying the organization of the text. Classroom activity was focused on training students with several reading items, especially for reading materials which are considered difficult by students. Therefore, the activities in the first meeting were divided into pre activities, main activities, and post activities. In pre activities, researcher delivered the basic concept of topic&main idea to the students first, continued by the purpose of the text and the organization of the text (see page 89-83). In finding the topic and main idea, researcher gave students several examples related to the strategies given both in short reading and long reading. These were recorded as follows:

Short Reading
Most of the ice on the Earth, close to 90 percent of it, is covering the surface of the continent Antartica. It does not snow very much in Antartica, but whatever snow does fall remains and goes deeper and deeper. In some areas of Antartica, the ice has perhaps been around for as much as a million years and now is more than two miles deep
The main idea of the passage is that . . .

1. 
   the earth is a cold planet
   
2. 
   most of the Earth’s ice is found in Antartica
   
3. 
   it snows more in Antarrtica than in any other place on Earth
   
4. 
   Antartica is only two miles wide but is 90 percent ice
   
5. 
   The only place where we can find ice on Earth
   

The implementation of reading strategies was researcher asked students first to identify what kinds of reading it was, long reading or short reading. As researcher said, “What kind of text is it, short reading or long reading?” Students replied, “shortttt....” Next researcher continued to give the instruction to students, now “Read the first sentence of the paragraph and identify the key words of the sentence by underliying the key words using colorful pen”. It was aimed to make students focus in what they faced.

At this process, students did what the researcher asked, they seemed eager and paid full attention in every researcher’s instruction. They read the first sentence and underlined the key words, key words of the paragraph above were “ice on the Earth”. This kind of key word can be determined by identifying the verb or auxiliary which appeared after the key word. At this step, researcher asked students to make a circle around the verb or auxiliary to emphasize it. Auxiliary or verb of the text above was the word “is”. Then, option A to E which did not consist the key word “ice on the earth” should be eliminated. So the rest options were option B and E. Next, researcher instructed the students to find exclamation in the following sentences. The exclamation sentences were “it does not snow very much in Antartica” and “In some areas of Antartica, the ice...”. These exclamation helped students to decide the correct answer related to find the topic of the passage. So it can be concluded that the right answer was option B “most of the Earth’s ice is found in Antarctica.” The short reading text 1 above used the reading strategies in finding the topic, these were 1) read the first sentence, 2) find the key words, and 3) key words were commonly found before verb/auxiliary.

Long Reading

The term “primitive art” has been used in a variety of ways to describe works and styles of art. One way that this term has been used is to describe the early period within the development of a certain style of art. Another way that this term has been used is to describe artists who have received little professional training and who demonstrate a nontraditional native in their work.

A wonderful example of this second type of primitive artist is Grandma Moses, who spent all her life living in a farm and working at tasks normally associated with farm life. She did not begin painting until she reached the age of seventy-six, when she switched to painting from embroidery because the arthritis in her arms made embroidery too difficult. Totally without formal education in art, she began creating panoramic images of everyday life on the farm that have achieved international fame.

UM I UNDIP 2009

1. 
   With what topic is this passage primarily concerned?
   

1. 
   An example of one of the types of primitive art
   
2. 
   Grandma Moses’ life on the farm
   
3. 
   How primitive art differs form formal art
   
4. 
   Grandma Moses’ primitive life style
   
5. 
   The division of primitive art
   

2. 
   Which of the following expresses the main idea of the passage?
   

1. 
   Grandma Moses spent her life on a farm
   
2. 
   Art critics cannot come to any agreement on a definition of primitive art
   
3. 
   Grandma Moses is one type of primitive artist because of her lack of formal training
   
4. 
   Many artists received little professional training
   
5. 
   the distinction between primitive and traditional art
   

The application of the strategies was researcher asked students first to identify what kinds of reading it was, long reading or short reading. As researcher asked students, What kind of text is it, short reading or long reading? Students replied, long,,, Next researcher continued to give the instruction to students to read the first sentence of each paragraph and underline the key words, the key words of both paragraphs above were “primitive art”. These key words can be determined by identifying the verb or auxiliary which appeared after the key words. At this step, researcher asked students to make a circle around the auxiliary to emphasize it. Auxiliaries of the text above were “has been used and is”. Then, option A to E which did not consist the key words “primitive art”should be eliminated. So the rest options were option A, C, and E. Next, researcher instructed the students to find exclamation in the paragraph. Because this passage is long reading, the exclamation can be found in both paragraphs. The exclamation sentences were “The term “primitive art” has been used in a variety of ways to describe works and styles of art” (paragraph 1) and “a wonderful example of this second type of primitive artist is Grandma Moses” (paragraph 2). These exclamations stressed on the types of primitive art, so it can be concluded that the right answer was option C “how primitive art differs form formal art.” The long reading text above used reading strategies in finding the topic, these were 1) read the first sentence of each paragraph, 2) find the key words, and 3) key words were commonly found before verb/auxiliary. Then, for second question. The implementation the strategies was similiar with the previous item. Meanwhile, in finding the purpose of the text, it can see the following description:

The Celtic languages are a group of languages of northern europe that are descendents of the Indo-European family of languages. These languages developed from the language of the Celts, a warlike civilization originating in the eastern part of central European, in the northern Alps, and along the Danube during the Bronze Age. The Celts reached the height of their civilization during the Iron age, the last five centuries B.C., and they fanned out from their original hemoland into many parts of continental Europe and across the channel and into the British Isles. Celtic languages were spoken in much of western Europe during Pre-Roman and Roman Times. Place names of Celtic origin can be found today all over the British Isles and France, in northern Spain and Italy, and in Switzerland and parts of Germany.

Rather than one language, the Celtic languages consist of two distinct clusters: the Gaelic group and the Brythonic group. These two clusters of languages most likely developed from dialects of the same language, the language of Celts in their original homeland. These two dialect were most likely mutually intelligible to some degrees as late as the fourth century. The Gaelic group of Celtic languages consists of Irish, Scottish, and Manx, the language of the Isle of Man. The Brythonic group of Celtic languages includes welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Gaulish, the language of Gaul Prior to the days of the Roman empire, with its Latin-speaking population.

Many though not all, of the Celtic language are either extinct or are in the process of becoming extinct. Gaulish apparently dissappeared around 600 A.D. Cornish and Manx both actually became extinct, the former in the nineteenth century and the later just a few decades ago, but both are being revived and are now taught in a few schools each. Scottish, irish, and Breton are all declining in use. There are under a hundred thousand speakers of Scottish Gaelic, mostly on the northern Hebridean Islands; there are more than a hundred thousand speakers of Irish, mainly in the western countries of Ireland; there are about a half million speakers who use Breton on a daily basis. In all these situations, though, the rate of transmission to new generations is low, and this does not bode well for the survival of these languages. Of all the Celtic languages, perhaps only Welsh has a strong hold on the future.
The author’s purpose in the passage is to ______

(A) describe the past and present of a related set of languages

(B) list the major characteristics of Celtic languages

(C) outline the major achievements of the Celts

(D) explain how languages manage to survive without changing

(E) inform a hundred thousand speakers

Strategies based instruction which can be applied to answer questions above were (1) researcher instructed students to read the question first and focus on what was questioned. At the item above, it asked the organization of the last paragraph. So focused to dig the information at the paragraph mentioned. (2) find key words and certain information related to the idea of each sentence. The key words of every sentence above were in the bold form. These were scientific questions related to the description of Celtic languages. Therefore the purpose of the last paragraph was option A “describe the past and present of a related set of languages.”

After researcher had given the students model and showed the implementation of the strategies, researcher asked students to do independently with several reading items. While students were doing the items, researcher was walking around the class asked students one by one whether they got difficulty in doing the items or not. Several students seemed confused when they face long reading with complicated vocabulary, researcher reminded them to ignore the vocabulary and focused on the strategies in doing long reading items.

After that researcher invited students to discuss the items. Researcher asked students to check their answer by using the clues which have been provided by the text. In the last 10 minutes, researcher discusseed the questions with the students. Asking the students’ answer, giving clues in each paragraphs to make finding answers easier. Some students asked and discussed about their answers. The class was very active, all students were very enthuasiasm, raised their hands and asked several questions related to the strategies. Their enthusiasm was recorded as researchers took notes, as students with the data source L-4 and L-6 statements “Bu besok kami tambahan lagi ya.”

Researcher felt happy and satisfaction after the meeting, in the end of the classroom activity. Researcher reminded students to apply those strategies in any reading they faced and discussed it later in the next meeting if they found difficulties or asked researcher in clinical time. Researcher closed the class by saying, “Thank you very much for your attention, see you next week, and Wassalamualikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.”

2.